better if you do
by Goodwind
Summary: There are no princes here. [Itachi, Tsunade, Naruto and a fairy tale that shouldn't be.]


better if you do.

_'Too bad I held on,  
When you tried to tell me  
This was wrong,  
This is wrong.'  
Meg & Dia - Masterpiece_

* * *

"I won't lose anything again," she says, face stern and eyes serious. 

"I won't lose to anyone!" He is grinning that grin of his and tapping his hiate-ate.

"I have nothing to lose," and it is more a statement than anything. His red eyes spin in the darkness (spinspinspin the world goes spin).

-----

There is a boy who is alone, trapped in a town that despises him. There is an evil sweeping through the streets. There are people cowering in their homes and hiding behind their curtains.

There is a coat with red clouds and white trim. There are angry blue eyes regarding the world around.

There is a kidnapping and no rescue mission. There is a king who misses his child and a town who rejoices in it's absence.

-----

They are a day and a half in when suddenly the mountain shifts then cracks open. They do not stop, not even when the ground breaks beneath their feet and the world tumbles down around them.

The noise stops and it is then that they stop. That they are forced to stop. A princess stands in front of them, holding her fallen knight with anger in her eyes and sharp words on her tongue.

What in the hell do you brats think you're doing, she says, this boy is just a kid. She scans their faces and comes to rest on the one who she marks as the most familiar.

Uchiha Itachi, she growls, the Konoha traitor.

They do not find it wise to point out that she too betrayed the country in her own way. Instead they all raise their weapons and fall into a fighting stance.

----

"I want you to leave him alone." She is speaking to them all but looking at Itachi.

"My assigned Jinchuuriki," Itachi answers, "is Uzumaki Naruto," and watches as her features do not change and her hands do not whiten.

"Then I look forward," she says quietly, anger in her voice more than her stance, "to seeing you again."

The Akatsuki watches as she turns on her heel and leaves, his cold body hanging limply in her arms.

----

Tsunade is careful now, never letting him out of her sight. She is careful as she picks up the sake bottle, careful as she gambles, and careful as she rants because she knows, she can sense, that red eyes are on her (spinspinspin, the world goes spin).

---

He is fascinated by the festivals in the town that they visit. It is one far away from the Fire Country and one far away from the thought of discrimination and bijuu and demons that go bump in the night.

He watches with awe as the fire dances in the air and performers put on plays about knights and princesses and the evil that tries to destroy the good kingdom.

The girl sitting beside him half laughs and half scoffs and he turns towards her, blue eyes meeting black (fall,fall,fall) and he smiles because he knows that it is only a fairytale and the witch will be gone in the morning. The girl continues to watch him and suddenly there is a hand in his hair and he is being pulled forward and nothing he can do will stop it. She bites his bottom lip and licks his blood and suddenly Tsunade is there pulling him away, away, away.

He stares over her shoulder at the evil that tries to destroy his land as his knight in shining armor brisks him away. Wait, he wants to say, I want to go back, but he knows that his knight will get angry so he does not speak. Tsunade seems on the verge of tears anyway and so he wraps his arms around her and allows himself to be dragged off.

----

He has always had good luck and he somehow finds himself in a casino, every time that they stop somewhere. He does not know where the money goes, he does not want to ask.

There is a boy with red eyes and black hair watching him from across the room. He smiles and nods his head and goes to pull the lever. The boy is suddenly next to him and a hot hand is suddenly enveloping his. The boy pulls down and his hand pulls down as well. The boy, he thinks, must have terrible luck. The numbers roll and it stops on triple sevens. Yes, he thinks, terrible luck indeed. And inserts a coin and pulls the lever again.

The boy is still there, a hand brushing his waist and hot breath fanning across his neck. The knight is there again, though, and once more he is dragged off.

----

Tonight, though, tonight is different. Tonight he will not allow himself to go anywhere (there is a body pressed against his, hot and heavy and needing something more). Tonight he is fifteen and there are lips on his skin and a hand in his pants.

His hands are pressed against her chest, molding her breast as he would clay. He presses her down and falls on top of her, lips pushed together desperately. His hands are in her tan hair and hers in his gold.

He pulls her robe apart and runs his hands up and down up and down, stopping at heat. She gasps and guides him in then flips them over.

He is close now, very close, and switches their positions once more. Right before a flash of blinding white overtakes him his eyes catch on the red ones watching just outside the window (spinspinspin the world goes spin) and he falls into a sort of white where there is no beginning nor ending or exit anywhere to be found. It is both pleasant and not and he looks for the eyes once more when he comes down.

They are gone but the lingering gaze is not.

----

It is tomorrow and he wakes up sore and spent but happy. The person beside him is gone but he doesn't mind. There is a note on the table and money is his coat.

She is gone.

He knows that she will not be back, not for some time. He decides to spend some time on the town, seeing the sights because he has never really been allowed before.

All the while he can feel eyes on him and it feels as though they are carving him out and putting him back together, leaving out pieces and putting in extra.

It is tomorrow and when the boy with red eyes comes searching he lets him in.

-----

He feels as though he is a princess, though he is surely not, and needs to be protected from all the evils of the world. He has never met those evils so he knows this to be true.

He is fifteen and three months and starts to wonder. He traces the paths that they have taken and the movements that were or were not made. He finds home and finds where he should not be taken.

He finds Akatsuki and does not understand. He finds bijuu and storybooks about heroes with yellow hair and white robes saving towns and losing the battle yet winning the war.

He finds jinchuuriki and does not wonder any longer.

----

He sees her along side a white-haired man and they are laughing somewhere in the distance. She is not jaded and he is not young and they are not perfect but they are happy.

This is not right, he tells himself, there is something wrong there. Because to him there seems to be a missing piece and to him there seems to be something missing from him as well.

This is not right, he says out loud, this is not right. Then he turns his back on his childhood and goes to make himself a hero, a legend. A dead man walking.

It chants inside of his head with every step that he takes away from her and towards the town gate. From the rooftops he can feel red eyes on him.

He is fifteen and six months and finally growing up.

-----

He is in Sunagakure, several hours from the place that he was born. There is a ghost town and a son used a weapon and people living in fear. The sun in the desert is hot and his body does not agree. The last thing he sees before the world goes dark are piercing green eyes.

When he awakens it is in a room not his own in a bed filled with sand and a body by the window.

He does not ask questions, does not think, simply thanks him for his kindness and leaves.

The red eyes have grown angry and the boy is lurking in the shadows.

-----

He decides not to go to Konohagakure after all and instead makes a wide arc and ends up in a small town just east of the Fire Country. This town is ridden with garbage in the form of people and dogs with their tails in between their legs.

He wants to change it but does not bother. This, he thinks, is the perfect place for now. He goes to check into a hotel room and swears that he hears her laughter.

There is a hole in the wall where he once waited.

----

Tonight there is an even hotter mouth on his, one not so old and one not so jaded. Tonight there is a body of the same type hot and heavy against his thigh and it is thrusting upwards.

Tonight there is a cascade of black and a hint of red. There are nails on his back and marks on his skin. There is a fire burning that cannot be put out.

The boy pushes him down and kneels with him. He lifts his legs up and pushes himself inside.

Tonight is his sixteenth birthday and he lets himself be dominated.

-----

There is a cloak spread around him and a body next to him and when he turns all he can see is white and black. The boy is still asleep and he revels in the sight.

He leans across the space and presses his lips against the boy's and then unwraps his arms and leaves.

When the door closes with finality the boy opens his eyes and frowns.

-----

His knight comes looking for him again, things sorted out and an old wizard by her side. There is a ring on her hand and a smile on her face.

His evil does not give up either and continues to search, coming the closest that anyone has. There is an empty spot beside him and a cloak ripped and torn.

The evil and the knight meet each other but not in battle, no, rather they are a glorified rescue party for the princess.

A spot of gold passes them all by and blue eyes stare ahead and are not strayed.

Uzumaki Naruto is seventeen years old and no longer wants to live in a fairytale.

* * *

all questions are welcome. goodwind. 


End file.
